NTIQVITATVM STVDIOSIS / EN VOBIS CANDIDISSIMI ANTIQVITATVM STVDIOSI CIRCI MAXIMI DESCRIPTIONEM ...

Engraving, ca. 1565/68, signed in plate lower right Bolognini Zalterij Formis.

Inscribed at upper left: ANTIQVITATVM STVDIOSIS / EN VOBIS CANDIDISSIMI ANTIQVITATVM STVDIOSI CIRCI MAXIMI DESCRIPTIONEM NON QVALEM PLANE / SCIOLI QVIDAM CAECVTIENTES AMOUSOTATOI KAI GELOIOTATOI FILARCAIOI IN SVIS ILLIS DE VRBE PRISCA / MENDACISSIMIS VNDECVMQVE VOLVMINIBVS EFFIGIATAM INVVLGARVNT SED QVALIS APELLAEA PYRRHI / LIGORII PICTORIS NEAPOLITANI MANV EX VETERVM ET CLASSICORVM AVCTORVM MONVMENTIS AD VNGVEM / REPRAESENTATA ET SVMMA CVM MICHAELIS TRAMEZINI CVRA ET IMPENSA EX AENEIS TABVLIS MIRIFICE / INCISIS FORMATA CVM HIS OMNIBVS COGNITIONE DIGNISSIMIS QVAE AD HVIVSCE REM ATTINET PVLCHE/(E)RRIME DEPICTIS AC NOMINATIM EX PRESSIS NVNC PRIMVM IN LVCEM PRODIT ATQVE ITA QVIDEM AB SOLV/TE VT EO NOMINE NIHIL AMPLIVS ADIICI AC DESIDERARI POSSIT. - QVARE SI CONTEMPLATI OTIOSE / HANC TABELLAM FVERITIS AT QVE VNVM QVOD QVE DILIGENTER CONSIDERAVERITIS DOCTISSIMAM ILLAM / CASSODORI AD FAVSTVM PRAEPOSITVM DE LVDIS CIRCENSIBVS EPISTVLAM AB IMPERITIS ANTIQVA/( A)RIIS MINIME INTELLECTAM AD HANC FRVGIFERVM ILLVM TERTVLLIANI DE SPECTACVLIS COMMENTA/(A)RIOLVM NEC NONSVB OBSCVROS DIONYSII ALICARNASSEI DE CIRCI CATAGRAPHE ET POMPA LOCOS: PRIMAM ITEM HORATII AD MECENATEM ODEN QVIN ETIAQM VETERVM NOMISMATVM ET LAPIDVM / MARMORVMQVE DE CIRCIS DIFFI CVLTATES NVLLO NEGOTIO INTELLI GETIS  [To scholars of antiquities. - Illustrious scholars of antiquities, here is to you the reproduction of the Circus Maximus, not as it was popularized in their volumes on the ancient Urbe, mendacious on every page, by some completely cecuzient pundits, utterly devoid of the worship of the Muses and ridiculous lovers of ancient things, - but as it is represented with extreme accuracy by the apellea hand of Pirro Ligorio, a Neapolitan painter, who drew it from the works of ancient and classical authors. Configured by the bronze plates, admirably engraved by the supreme care and great expense of Michele Tramezzini, with what deserves to be known in this field, with splendid representations and accurate captions, it is now for the first time given to light, and in so perfect a manner that nothing more can be added or desired. - Hence if you have contemplated this table and if you have considered every detail, you will effortlessly understand the very learned letter of Cassiodorus to Faustus, Provost of the Circus Ludi, a letter not at all understood by inexperienced antiquarians, and you will then understand the fruitful brief commentary about the spectacles of Tertullian, as well as the obscure texts of Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the description and parades of the circus, and again the first ode that Horace dedicated to Maecenas, and finally the coins, tombstones and marbles of the ancients].

Example in the first state of two, before the address of Donato Rascicotti (see Rubach n. 294).

Beautiful proof, printed on contemporary laid paper with watermark "deer in a shield with cross" (cf. Woodward no. 53, who finds it in a map by Zaltieri dated 1566), trimmed to copperplate and with contemporary margins added, in excellent condition.

This is the extremely rare Venetian replica of the fantastic reconstruction of the Circus Maximus, made by Bolognino Zaltieri on the model by Pirro Ligorio (engraved in Rome by Nicolas Beatrizet and published by Michele Tramezzini in 1550).

"The Circus Maximus situated in a long valley, traversed by a rivulet of water, between the two hills Palatine and Aventine, with discreetly steep sides: thus appeared the site in which the Circus Maximus was later to be installed. The site has been of vital importance since prehistoric times, linked as it is to the ford of the Tiber at the Tiber Island and to all the economic activities connected with it. Two obelisks can be seen in the engraving, the taller one is that of Constantius II, now standing in Piazza S. Giovanni in Laterano and is the tallest of Rome's obelisks measuring 45.70 m, the smaller one, of Augustus, is now located in Piazza del Popolo” (translation from C. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento).

Although Marigliani - probably following Huelsen who lists it as the first - indicates this one by Zaltieri as the prototype of the subject, later replicated in Rome by Tremezzini, the opposite seems evident, as evidenced by the fact that Tramezzini's name appears in the inscription of this engraving published by Zaltieri. After all, Tramezzini's plate enjoyed an ironclad ten-year papal privilege, as indicated in the same print in the inscription on the upper right: "by order, sanction and decree of Julius III, Pontifex Maximus, or bookseller, printer, merchant, book retailer, whoever you may be - these plates with the illustration of the Circus Maximus, edited by Michele Tramezino, beginning with the edition of the year 1550, month of June, in the third year of the same felicissimo Pontificato, for a decade, shall not be printed without the authorization of the same Michele, nor in any place, without his authorization, shall they be offered for sale. Sanction Whoever shall behave otherwise, let him be cursed by the above-mentioned Michele, and, in the name of penalty and fine, let him be required to pay five hundred aurei” [translation of Latin inscription].

For all that has been said about the 10-year privilege, the Zaltieri printing, therefore, would seem datable to at least after 1560; however, a date to after 1565 seems more consonant with the publisher's activity. The watermark found on this example of ours-found by Woodward in a Zaltieri map dated 1566-induces us to date the plate to about 1565/68.

The work belongs to the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the earliest iconography of ancient Rome.

The Speculum originated in the publishing activities of Antonio Salamanca and Antonio Lafreri (Lafrery). During their Roman publishing careers, the two editors-who worked together between 1553 and 1563-started the production of prints of architecture, statuary, and city views related to ancient and modern Rome. The prints could be purchased individually by tourists and collectors, but they were also purchased in larger groups that were often bound together in an album. In 1573, Lafreri commissioned a frontispiece for this purpose, where the title Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae appears for the first time. Upon Lafreri's death, two-thirds of the existing copperplates went to the Duchetti family (Claudio and Stefano), while another third was distributed among several publishers. Claudio Duchetti continued the publishing activity, implementing the Speculum plates with copies of those "lost" in the hereditary division, which he had engraved by the Milanese Amborgio Brambilla. Upon Claudio's death (1585) the plates were sold - after a brief period of publication by the heirs, particularly in the figure of Giacomo Gherardi - to Giovanni Orlandi, who in 1614 sold his printing house to the Flemish publisher Hendrick van Schoel. Stefano Duchetti, on the other hand, sold his own plates to the publisher Paolo Graziani, who partnered with Pietro de Nobili; the stock flowed into the De Rossi typography passing through the hands of publishers such as Marcello Clodio, Claudio Arbotti and Giovan Battista de Cavalleris. The remaining third of plates in the Lafreri division was divided and split among different publishers, some of them French: curious to see how some plates were reprinted in Paris by Francois Jollain in the mid-17th century. Different way had some plates printed by Antonio Salamanca in his early period; through his son Francesco, they goes to Nicolas van Aelst's. Other editors who contributed to the Speculum were the brothers Michele and Francesco Tramezzino (authors of numerous plates that flowed in part to the Lafreri printing house), Tommaso Barlacchi, and Mario Cartaro, who was the executor of Lafreri's will, and printed some derivative plates. All the best engravers of the time - such as Nicola Beatrizet (Beatricetto), Enea Vico, Etienne Duperac, Ambrogio Brambilla, and others  - were called to Rome and employed for the intaglio of the works.

All these publishers-engravers and merchants-the proliferation of intaglio workshops and artisans helped to create the myth of the Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, the oldest and most important iconography of Rome. The first scholar to attempt to systematically analyze the print production of 16th-century Roman printers was Christian Hülsen, with his Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri of 1921. In more recent times, very important have been the studies of Peter Parshall (2006) Alessia Alberti (2010), Birte Rubach and Clemente Marigliani (2016).

Bibliografia

C. Hülsen, Das Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae des Antonio Lafreri (1921), n. 33/a; cfr. Peter Parshall, Antonio Lafreri's 'Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae, in “Print Quarterly”, 1 (2006); cfr. B. Rubach, Ant. Lafreri Formis Romae (2016), n. 294, I/II; cfr. A. Alberti, L’indice di Antonio Lafrery (2010), n. A118; cfr. Marigliani, Lo splendore di Roma nell’Arte incisoria del Cinquecento (2016), n. II.15; cfr, D. Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps 1540 – 1600 (1996).